Friday, 25 May 2018

Sex For Marks Scandal: OAU Student Who Exposed Her Lecturer On Tape Opens Up To CNN

When Monica Osagie got low marks in a course for her master’s degree, she says the professor gave her two options: Sleep with him, or fail the class.

Faced with this stark choice, Osagie says she knew no one would believe her word against the lecturer’s, so she recorded one of their conversations using a cell phone app.

The student’s allegations, coming amid the conversations around the global #Metoo movement, have now sparked a nationwide conversation in Nigeria about predatory sexual behavior on campuses and bolstered the notion that sexual harassment is a problem women the world over face almost every day.

In the recording, a man can be heard saying that if the student agreed to have s*x with him five times, he would improve her grades.

“Is it not five we agreed? Our agreement is five,” the man says on the tape.

Osagie replies, “Is it B that you want to give me or A? Why would it be five times you will knack me? Prof, you know what? Let me fail it. I can’t do it five times.”

Student speaks out

In her only interview since the audio was leaked online, Osagie, 23, told CNN she had developed a mentor-mentee relationship with the professor after she helped him edit his book.

But the relationship soon made her uncomfortable because he started to make sexual advances towards her, she said.

“We actually edited the book together… Then, the next thing he told me was, ‘Can you date me?’ I was like, ‘No.’ He was like, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘One, I don’t date lecturers, and secondly, you are more matured than I am.'”

CNN hasn’t been able to confirm the professor’s age.

Osagie believes he deliberately gave her low marks so she would agree to sleep with him to raise them, she said.

“He kept calling me to ask if I was ready to accept his proposal. So, I decided to record our next conversation,” she added.

CNN has listened to the recording but cannot independently verify it. But a spokesman for the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Osun State, south west Nigeria, has confirmed that the voice is that of Richard Akindele, an accounting professor at the university.

The university said in a statement posted on its website: “Professor Richard I. Akindele, of the department of management and accounting, is now established to be the lecturer in the controversial “marks for sex” audio recording.

The female voice has also been identified as that of Miss Monica Osetobe Osagie, a postgraduate student on the Master of Business Administration Regular programme.”